US woman travels to Seoul to remove love lock she left with ex

A TikToker has taken followers on her long trip from Los Angeles to Seoul motivated by a “petty” act after she broke up with her ex.

A woman has revealed how she travelled more than 9000km to Seoul to carry out a “petty” act after a break-up.

TikToker Kassie Yeung, 23, made the long journey to the South Korean capital from her home in Los Angeles in order to find and remove a love lock she’d left with her ex on the city’s iconic Namsan Tower.

Namsan Tower, one of the highest buildings in Seoul, has become a major tourist destination for lovers attaching padlocks, often inscribed with their initials or a romantic message, to the railing.

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Ms Yeung said she and her ex clasped a love lock at Namsan Tower in 2019 before they broke up.

Her TikTok video, which has had more than one million views, shows her flying to Seoul, buying a pair of wire cutters, and riding the cable car to the top of Namsan Tower.

In the video she says she is being “petty” but added: “I don’t care what anyone says.”

The Namsan Tower in Seoul is a tourist destination because of its love locks. Picture: Simon Tsang

Leung spent about 30 minutes searching for the lock she left with her ex. Picture: @kassieyeung

The video then shows her searching among the colourful locks until she finds the one she attached with her ex, and cuts it off.

Ms Yeung told Insider it took about 30 minutes to find the love lock, and said she removed it out of “pettiness”.

She admitted removing the lock wasn’t her sole motivation for visiting Seoul – she was there for work anyway, but remembered the lock and thought it would make relatable TikTok content.

“It is relevant in the sense that everyone goes through relationships, breakups, and possibly having love locks with ex-lovers,” Ms Yeung said.

She admitted the act was ‘petty’. Picture: @kassieyeung

She also hoped it would be relatable content for viewers. Picture: @kassieyeung

The love locks at Namsan Tower is a similar concept to the famous Pont des Arts and other lovelock bridges in Paris.

However, in 2015 city workers removed thousands of locks on the Pont des Arts, after a portion of the footbridge collapsed into the River Seine under the weight of all the locks.

Love locks were similarly removed at Kirra Hill on the Gold Coast, which had become another popular spot for the tradition.

Not all of those locks symbolised romantic love, with some were memorials to loved ones who had passed away.

Their removal in 2018 infuriated those who had left them there, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported at the time.